Many books on startups and business talk about how there are right and wrong reasons for starting a business. So, we asked a handful of successful founders about their reasons and the thought-process behind starting their business.

Carolina Martinez | Floral designer

Having your own business allows you to have more freedom. I have a family and working a 9-5 consumed my life. I want to be able to make my own schedule, be my own boss per se. The profession I have chosen not only allows me to be creative but it also allows my children to be creative. This is a family business and it is my dream to pass this down to them. Read more>>

Molly Ann Cherry | Boudoir and Erotica Photographer

I am not shy to owning a business. Being an entrepreneur isn’t a choice for me, it’s life. My first venture into a business was when I was in middle school at the tender age of 11. I noticed one of my friends had a friendship bracelet and all the girls were really digging it. It got me to thinking…. Read more>>

Dr. Janet Williams, MD | Ob/Gyn, Intimate Life Coach & Professional Hypnotist

If I have this problem even with all of the education and experience that I have then surely there is a market for the solution I’ve come up with for myself. I knew I needed to help women with this important part of their lives that no one was really addressing. And as a professional black woman over 40 I just couldn’t find anyone with the medical experience and knowledge, cultural understanding and an openness to the alternative and spiritual aspects of sexual health and wellbeing. Read more>>

Jeion Green | CEO & President

My thought process behind starting my business was first thinking, “I absolutely had to.” Also, for my Film & Entertainment Production business, Jeion Green, LLC, it was a must to truly enter the industry as an independent artist and filmmaker in order to receive any funds to begin making my fairytale dreams come true. Read more>>

Jillian Greaves | Functional Medicine Dietitian and Women’s Health Specialist

Starting my own business was really motivated by a combination two things: my experience working as an Outpatient Dietitian in an endocrinology department at a big Boston Hospital, and my experience navigating my own health journey. Read more>>

Joe Reineke | Husband, Musician, Producer, Engineer

I’ve had the incredible opportunity to play music in bands signed to different labels. The Meices, my first band, had a contract with London Records, and later, my band Alien Crime Syndicate signed with Revolution/Warner and then V2 Records. I ended up making records in various cities, from London to NYC, LA, San Fran, and Florida. Read more>>

Stacia Tyndale | Entrepreneur & Real Estate Agent

Financial freedom, also the ability to be with my family on any and every occasion. Read more>>

Yuxuan Gong | Fashion designer

There was a phase in my life where I fervently pursued part-time and full-time job opportunities, as well as internships, in my quest for hands-on industry experience. Although I gained valuable insights while working for various companies, I gradually realized that these experiences did not align with my true passion. Read more>>

Krystan Pencil | DJ/ Professional Fire Performer/ Booking Agent/ Promoter/ Artist

I actually have 3 businesses and 1 that I help with. Ill explain all of them. Read more>>

Madhu | CEO & Founder of Madhu.Life Holistic Lifestyle Coach | Ayurvedic Therapist | Professional Musician | Bhakti Yoga & Kirtan Teacher

I love teaching more than anything. I’m passionate about making ancient, transformative Vedic arts and sciences relevant and accessible for everyone, while still preserving their authenticity and purity. Read more>>

Cayle Sharratt | Lawyer & Nonprofit Record Label Owner

I wanted to do something that would combine two of my passions – independent music and social justice. And there were already successful examples of the same combination of business and passion that existed that I could look at to emulate. The nonprofit record label idea has been done before. Read more>>

Haleh Houshim | Beauty & Wellness Coach – Wellness with Haleh

My mission and passion is to impact Billions of lives and have financial freedom. Read more>>

Janine Mandell | Luxury Real Estate Agent

Owning a business and being my own boss was something that I always knew I wanted, even before I had the words to describe it. Growing up, I was always an independent thinker and never afraid to try new things or take risks. It wasn’t until high school economics that I realized that this idea I had in my mind was called entrepreneurship. Read more>>

Jessica Cassandro | Couples Photographer

Before my husband and I got married, I was a nursing assistant and going to college for my AA. During covid I was laid off of my job and took some time off from working and during that time we got married and moved across country twice. My husband and I never got professional pictures of us until after we got married. We had just moved to the Bay Area and I saw a neighbor post that she was offering photography sessions. I jumped on it. Read more>>

Maria Staffeld | Artist: Sculptress, Painter.

Like many, I started the venture of my small business during the pandemic. Suddenly, I had plenty of time in my hands (and lots of clay in my hands too.) I spent most of my time digital drawing and painting, but I felt the need to bring my designs to life by creating three-dimensional objects. Read more>>

Sai Reddy | Founder of the nonprofit A Roof for All

It was about three years ago, a month or so into my freshman year of high school, that I found myself in the middle of my school’s annual Club Rush. Surrounded by a plethora of different clubs and their respective tables, I was eager to join them all – or at least eat the various baked goods and sweets that they offered. Read more>>

Honda Shahin | Artist & Print-Maker

Starting Shahin Studios was a natural progression for me as an artist and printmaker. Collaborating closely with my brother Marwan Shahin throughout our careers, including significant projects like the 2Vth Mural during the Egyptian Revolution in Alexandria, Egypt, and The infamous Smoking Kills installation, not to mention producing countless prints of his art laid a solid foundation for our artistic pursuits. Read more>>

Heidi Strock | Owner, See Spot Run Creative

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision! In 2018, I was working at a network as a longterm freelance writer/producer in entertainment marketing. When the company was unable to make me a staffer, I pivoted right there in that meeting and decided to try starting my own business. Read more>>

Belle Chuang | Entrepreneur

In late 2022, I quit my full time job to start a home goods brand, called Tuyu Home, with my good friend, Sidney. At the same time, I dove into content creation, something I had always been curious about for a long time. The journey so far has been so fulfilling as I’ve been able to leverage learnings from content creation and launching a business to grow each aspect. Read more>>

Bre Michelle | Mindset Coach

The driving force behind starting my own business was my desire to empower millennial women. I had a strong inclination to help women for some time, which led me to become a licensed cosmetologist in high school. Although I enjoyed enhancing women’s outer beauty, I soon realized that inner beauty and confidence was just as important. Read more>>

Jessey Martinez | Tattoo Artist

I am so blessed to have the ability to take advantage of the opportunities I have been given. Surprisingly enough, I got my bachelor’s degree in Theology a few years ago and wanted to be a children’s pastor. I pursued this career several times and it was just not working out. Growing up in an old school, religious home, I thought that Christians were only supposed to work in a church. Read more>>

Dr. Lane Tran | Certified Chiropractic Sports Practitioner and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

The thought process of starting my own business was wanting to provide the highest quality of personalized and ethical care to patients. Read more>>

Sarah Thompson | Business Owner & Photographer

To be honest, I started my business because I got fired from my corporate creative job. It was December 2016 and I had just come home from my honeymoon to find I had no job. Scary. Read more>>

Jasmine and Lorenzo | Owners of Spaghetti Western

Though we had been dreaming about “Spaghetti Western” well before we could turn it into reality, we had absolutely NO experience in the restaurant industry. We are both originally from Rome, Italy but met in Los Angeles in 2012 and have been playing music together for over 10 years now. We fell in love with the high desert and moved out here full time in 2017. There was an immediate connection with the desert and most of all, we were struck by the deep sense of community out here. Read more>>

Sean Price | Owner of Pricetone Recording Studio

Starting Pricetone was about freedom and finding happiness. I have always been so passionate about music and engineering, but I spend years interning and working for other people making their music. I felt like I got lost in the industry, just another person trying to fight to the top, making other people’s music. When I started my own recording studio, it was the hardest and scariest thing I’ve ever done but also the most liberating. Read more>>

Sahvannah Rae | Writer/ Director

Creative freedom was at the forefront of creating Skye Film Studios. I didn’t just want to work in the film industry, I wanted to contribute to shaping it and I realized the only way to do this was to create a platform that embodied everything I believed in as a storyteller. I not only aimed to create a platform that I felt inspired my own authentic work, but also attracted likeminded creatives in the hopes of building a community with authentic agendas. Read more>>

Kyle Stolz | Brass & Woodwind Repair Technician

I had three main thoughts that drove me into creating my own business: Growth, Money and Freedom…and not in that order. The Idea: When the pandemic hit, I was making a comfortable wage while repairing instruments for a big box store that was shut down for three months. Despite the closures, musicians were still playing/breaking their instruments. Read more>>

Natalie Greenside | Interior Designer, Principal MN Studio

We crossed paths while working at an Architecture and Interior Design firm in Santa Barbara. Pretty quickly after we started working with one another we realized we were a really great team, worked well together, and had a similar vision for how we wanted to operate. Privately, we would say “someday when we have our own studio, we’ll do it this way” seriously but kind of as a far off dream. Read more>>

Michael Kushner | Multi-Hyphenate Theatre Creative (Photographer, Performer, Producer, Writer, Podcaster, Educator)

I always knew that if I started my own business, I would have creative freedom. Outside of a rehearsal room, I’m not very good about being told what to do. I like to have the space to follow my impulses and respond to situations in an organic way and I can’t do that in a corporate setting or by having a boss. Read more>>

David Victory | Fashion Photographer Los Angeles

I abhor working for others, especially government and entrepreneurship is in my DNA, I am a man of a thousand ideas and believe in the saying by Mark Twain — ‘Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.’ Read more>>